Erdogan slams NATO for failing to back Syria campaign

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday angrily lashed out at NATO, accusing the Western military alliance of failing to back Turkey’s campaign against Kurdish militia in Syria.

Erdogan’s latest comments were among the toughest he has directed in recent times against NATO, which Turkey joined in 1952 as the US sought to make sure it did not fall under Soviet sway after World War II.

Turkey launched its operation on January 20 seeking to oust the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from the Afrin region of northern Syria with its forces now just a few kilometres away from Afrin town.

After the start of the campaign, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Turkey had a right to defend itself but emphasised it must be done “in a proportionate and measured way.”

Erdogan slammed Washington for arming the YPG, saying the group had received 5,000 trucks and 2,000 cargo planes of weapons.

“Is this friendship? Is this NATO unity?” he asked in a later speech, noting how Turkey had backed the alliance by participating in its operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere. “Are we not a NATO member?”